Iowa Grip Tightens On Big 10

March 04, 1985|By Reid Hanley.

Is the Big 10 the Big One and Little Nine in wrestling?

The results of Sunday`s Big 10 championships at Northwestern make a case for it. Iowa won its 12th straight title with eight champions, one runner-up and one third-place finisher. The Hawkeyes scored 184 3/4 points to Michigan`s 103 1/2.

``Today makes it look like the old football deal of Big Two and Little Eight,`` said Northwestern assistant coach Tim Cysewski, an Iowa graduate.

``We`ve got good teams and more balance than we`ve had. Iowa`s got the momentum. It started 10 years ago when I was there, but as long as the conference keeps emphasizing wrestling, it will be okay.``

Iowa will shoot for its eighth straight NCAA championship later this month in Oklahoma City. These Hawkeyes could become one of coach Dan Gable`s best teams.

``It`s too hard to tell yet,`` Gable said of comparisons between this team and the 1983 squad, which had nine Big 10 champions and set an NCAA scoring record. ``It will be two more weeks before we find out. That will determine how good this team is. In 1983, we had a tremendous nationals after the Big 10s.``

``That`s the fourth one and the last one is always the best one,`` said Davis, an Olympic silver medalist. ``It feels good. I`ve beaten him the last three times, and even if I beat him 6-4, I thought I kind of handled him. I didn`t have much trouble and should have had about six more points on three shots I missed.``

``It`s nice to win because the Big 10 is important for national seedings,`` Goldman said. ``But I would like to have wrestled better in the finals. He was hard to wrestle. Then I hurt my ankle and had a big enough lead.``

Northwestern`s fourth-place finish was its best showing in 14 years. Durbin, Mike Rosman (third at 150), Steve DePetro (third at 126) and Mike Kraft (fourth at 167) qualified for the NCAA championships.

``It`s great to get in the first division, where we think we belong,``

said NU coach Tom Jarman. ``We had some disappointments like not getting two more guys to nationals. But we went from eighth to fourth and zero qualifiers to four.``